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Varun Chakaravarthy of India celebrates the wicket of Aiden Markram of South Africa with players during the 5th T20I match between India and South Africa at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, India on December 19, 2025. (CREIMAS for BCCI)
Come T20 World Cup, India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel wants opponents to be least prepared when it comes to how Suryakumar Yadav & Co will be playing their cards with the ball. In the ongoing series against New Zealand, India’s bowling unit has evolved into an attack where bowlers have been comfortable to bowl in different phases. They are being used for even a one-over spell and Morkel said every Indian bowler possesses an X-factor.
Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, their premier pacer, who has been handed a flexible role, even the spinners Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav have been called in at different times to send an over or two, which has caught opponents off-guard. When they started preparing for the T20 World Cup, it was their priority, he revealed.
“That’s a luxury we have at the moment,” he said about the versatility of their attack. “We’ve got a handful of bowlers that can bowl in every situation, in different situations. Part of the thinking for us, leading into the World Cup, was to look at different combinations. We don’t want teams to have set plans against us. I think at the moment, we’re doing that quite well. If teams start to plan against us, they don’t know where we are going to fit and how we’re going to play our cards. For us, it is important to give guys that opportunity in that role, to get comfortable in those roles. Because of the conditions we might face on the day, we’ll go up with different game plans. But, yeah, to have that quality in our bowling attack that allows us options is always a great place to be,” Morkel said.
Different thinking
While most teams have usually relied on winning games with the bat in the format, Morkel said India are aligned more towards taking wickets at the powerplay, which would curtail the opportunity to put up huge totals. “For us it’s about getting those bowling partnerships, getting that sorted for the World Cup. 20-20 is about taking wickets. We want to try and get teams down, seven, eight down, six down, by the 15th, 16th over. So how we can plan that with our bowling attack to get those wickets is going to be important. We’ve got, with the 11 that we can pick on match day, we’ve got 11 match winners. And that’s a nice position to be in.”
While teams often look for one X-factor option with the ball, India have three in Bumrah, Kuldeep and Varun. All three offer variety in their own ways. “Everybody has a certain ability of X factor about them. So yeah, for us it’s just to keep on having good, clear communications about their roles, what to expect. And then they also know, the buy-in for this team is that there’s no guarantee of starting in the 11. It’s about who is suited based on the conditions and how we can see the team winning at the end of the day. It’s about the team and the conditions and how we can win a great game of cricket,” Morkel said.
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